The Root Chakra: Foods to Ground and Strengthen

The Root Chakra: Foods to Ground and Strengthen

We’ve all read about mantras, meditations and asanas for balancing our seven main chakras but along with our lifestyle, what we eat can effect our chakras as well.

In this series I’ll be breaking down foods you should be eating and drinking to help balance out your seven main chakras!

Lets start with our first chakra: our grounding chakra.

Located at the base of the spine, the Root Chakra (Muladhara) forms our foundation and is the building block on which all other chakras rest. Associated with the color red and the symbol of the four-petal Lotus flower, the Root Chakra deals with feelings of security, trust and survival as well as with the connection we experience with our physical body and its nourishment.

When this chakra is in balance we feel grounded, strong and secure and have a sense of inner security that allows us to trust in the universe. If this chakra is blocked a person may feel emotionally explosive, manipulative or may lack energy. Physical problems can include kidney weakness, stiff lower back and muscle spasms.

So when we think root chakra, we want to focus in on grounding. Adding in foods like: carrots, potatoes, parsnips, radishes, onions and garlic, and anything else that roots itself, can have a soothing effect for our root chakra.

Dandelion Root tea can be a great way to end a day that has left you feeling a little disconnected, and it’s caffeine free!

A healthy root chakra vibrates at the color red. Therefore, red foods provide the vibration needed to help balance the root chakra. Nutritionally, red foods usually have high levels of vitamin C–a nutrient utilized by several body parts that the root chakra oversees, like bones, teeth, skin and adrenals. Some red foods you could try are tomatoes, strawberries, apples, pomegranates and cherries.

Recipe: Kale and Mushroom Stuffed Potatoes

Here’s a grounding recipe I love to make when I feel a little unsettled or shaken.

Ingredients:

4 potatoes

Grapeseed oil

1 1/2 red onions

2 cloves of garlic

1 cup kidney beans

1 cup of kale

1 cup of mushrooms

Parsley, salt and pepper for seasoning

Directions:

Heat over to 350 degrees

Wash 4 potatoes of your choosing, I used russet but you could also you sweet.

Poke holes and coat with oil of choosing, I used grapeseed for high temperature cooking.

Add a little salt and pop in the oven. Times may very, as you know when it comes to potatoes. I say about an hour.

Meanwhile, sauté 1/2 a red onion and the garlic cloves until clear. Add in the kidney beans and sauté for about three minutes. Then add in the kale, mushrooms, and one chopped red onion. Season with a little parsley, salt and pepper.

Once the potatoes are done, slice down the middle and combined the mixture into the middle of the potato. Pop back in the oven for just about 10 minutes while its still warm–but not on–just to allow the flavored to soak in.

Serve while warm and enjoy!



Chakras: What They Don't Tell You at Yoga Class

Chakras: What They Don’t Tell You at Yoga Class

Six blind men lived in a village. One day a villager said, “Wow, there’s an elephant here today!” The blind men had never experienced “elephant.” After conferring, they decided to go touch the elephant and find out what the excitement was about. They gathered around the beast and each took hold of a different part.

The blind man holding the elephant’s leg said, “Hey, this elephant is like a pillar.”

Another, holding the tail, said, “No no! It’s like a rope.”

The third, touching the elephant’s trunk, said, “You’re both wrong — the elephant is like a thick tree branch.”

Another, holding the elephant’s ear, said, “It’s like a big banana leaf.”

“No. It’s like a huge wall,” said the blind man touching the elephant’s side. At this point one can only wonder at the patience of this elephant.

 

watercolor elephant 2


The sixth blind man said, “You’re all wrong. An elephant is like a solid pipe.” He was touching the elephant’s tusk, perhaps just prior to the elephant using it to toss the him over its shoulder.

Aside from the ensuing arguments about who was “right,” each blind man was correct in his perception — there was truth in each experience. In the Jain tradition, it is said the truth can be stated in seven versions or points of view, and the lesson is to be tolerant of the experiences and perceptions of others.

Thus it is with chakras. We’re like blind men with an elephant — each with our own view of the chakra system based on experience, exposure, what we’ve seen, read, heard, or been told — but ironically, it is the cherished belief in our “rightness” (about virtually anything) that ultimately blocks the development and unfolding of the subtle body’s energy centers. Defending any position can launch us into a state of emotional reactivity — the kryptonite of spiritual evolution.

“In different traditions, one can find wheels, flowers, angels, animals, animal parts, geometric shapes, children, the seven dwarves, deities, buddhas, yantras, or mandalas. But in fact, across the board, believing in any judgements which give rise to emotional reactivity is the one sure way to ‘block’ the performance of a chakra,” said Lar C. Short, author of The Way of Radiance and co-author of The Body of Light. By referring to the “performance” of a chakra, Short distinguishes these centers as activities (verbs) rather than things (nouns).

So gentle seeker, or finder as the case may be, suspend disbelief for this exploration of the paradoxical human chakra energetic system.

Read Article

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